Exchange rates during the crisis

Nearly two years after the onset of the financial crises, many central banks have brought their policy interest rates down to, or close to zero. Various governments have seen their budget deficits soar. Both policies have affected exchange rates, partly through market expectations. With a majority of exchange rates officially floating, exchange rate movements do not necessarily reflect official decisions as was the case in the 1930s. Yet, also in the 2008 crisis, authorities have directly intervened in the foreign exchange market, sometimes in order to defend a falling currency but in other instances with the aim to limit appreciation pressure, akin of competitive devaluations. This paper documents the exchange rate interventions during the height of the 2008/09 financial crisis and identifies the countries which have particular high incentives to intervene in the foreign exchange market to competitively devalue their currency. While various countries had increased incentives to devalue, we find that direct exchange rate interventions have been rather limited and contagion of devaluation has been restricted to one regionally contained case. However, sharp market-driven exchange rate movements have reshaped competitive positions. It appears that these movements have so far not seriously disrupted global trade. After all, a world crisis is likely to require widespread exchange rate adjustments as different countries are affected in different ways and have different capacities to weather the shocks.Currencies and Exchange Rates,Debt Markets,Emerging Markets,Economic Stabilization,Economic Theory&Research

Acoustic Scattering from Mud Volcanoes and Carbonate Mounts

Submarine mud volcanoes occur in many parts of the world’s oceans and form an aperture for gas and fluidized mud emission from within the earth’s crust. Their characteristics are of considerable interest to the geology, geophysics, geochemistry, and underwater acoustics communities. For the latter, mud volcanoes are of interest in part because they pose a potential source of clutter for active sonar. Close-range (single-interaction) scattering measurements from a mud volcano in the Straits of Sicily show scattering10–15dB above the background. Three hypotheses were examined concerning the scattering mechanism: (1) gas entrained in sediment at/near mud volcano, (2) gas bubbles and/or particulates (emitted) in the water column, (3) the carbonate bio-construction covering the mud volcano edifice. The experimental evidence, including visual, acoustic, and nonacoustic sensors, rules out the second hypothesis (at least during the observation time) and suggests that, for this particular mud volcano the dominant mechanism is associated with carbonate chimneys on the mud volcano. In terms of scattering levels, target strengths of 4–14dB were observed from 800to3600Hz for a monostatic geometry with grazing angles of 3–5°. Similar target strengths were measured for vertically bistatic paths with incident and scattered grazing angles of 3–5° and 33–50°, respectively

The Reasons behind the Rules in the Law of Business Torts

I. Introduction II. The Goals of the Law and How They Are Pursued … A. Social Control … B. The Aims of Social Control … C. Achieving These Goals III. Law-Making in the Area of Business Torts … A. Free Enterprise—A Basic Assumption … B. The Right to Pursue a Profit IV. Balancing Interests in Typical Business Tort Cases V. Reflections of the Process of Balancing Interests … A. Privilege … B. Abuse of Privilege VI. Trademark and Trade Name Cases … A. Terminology Used … B. Principal Interests in Trademark and Trade Name Cases VII. The Trade Secret Cases VIII. Business Torts Based on Statute … A. Infringement of Patents … B. Infringements of Copyrights … C. Business Torts Based on Violations of the Antitrust Laws IX. Conclusio

Inheritance and interrelation of some agronomic and chemical characters in an interspecific cross in soybeans, Glycine max x G. ussuriensis

Since the acceptance of Mendelism there has been an ever increasing and universal interest in quantitatively inherited characters in organisms. Environmental influences together with polygenic complexes have challenged research into an attempt to separate environmental and genetic variances. With this information, the plant breeder may make more rapid advances toward .desired goals. Genetic investigations relative to breeding behavior of quantitatively inherited characters in soybeans are limited. This study is an attempt to add new information relative to the segregation, mode of inheritance, manner of gene action and the interrelations among five commercially important characters: seed size, maturity date, protein percentage, oil percentage and iodine number of the oil

Clark - A New Soybrean for Southern Iowa

Clark is the new soybean variety adapted for growth in southern Iowa and five other states. It\u27s high yielding and high in oil content. It has been tested experimentally, increased and distributed to growers for planting in 1954. Iowa\u27s testing reveals

A study of the effects of pressure-induced viscosity changes on the fluid flow characteristics in a circular tube

A method of determining the response of fluids under high pressure to quick-release into the atmosphere is presented in this report. The analytical efforts have been formulated into two parts, a closed-form solution and a numerical analysis. By assuming constant viscosity of the fluid a closed-form solution was obtained. The assumption of constant viscosity was found to be acceptable for the test fluids up to an initial pressure of approximately 10,000 psi. A numerical analysis became necessary for initial pressures over 10,000 psi, where the variable viscosity of the fluid had to be considered. The experimental work was conducted by observing the flow of a fluid from a pressurized reservoir through a circular tube to the atmosphere. The primary experimental variables were: (1) length of the circular tube, (2) type of fluid used, and (3) initial reservoir pressure. The pressure decay was measured by the use of strain gages in the reservoir and recorded on an oscilloscope screen --Abstract, Page ii